Review: Walking Dead: The Game Season Two shows signs of life (episode 1 and 2)

Telltale Games had the seemingly impossible task of following up one of the best games of 2012, The Walking Dead, with another emotionally charged instalment in the game franchise.

How could they possibly force gamers to make tougher decisions than the ones in the original?

Note: The following review may contain spoilers for The Walking Dead Season One. Read cautiously or go play the game first.

The simple answer is that they can’t and after the first two episodes of The Walking Dead Season Two, it seems like Telltale Games understands that as well.

The latest volume begins with Clementine, the playable character replacing Lee Everett, trying to survive the apocalypse with Omid and Christa. Their situation only gets worse and a tumultuous journey spanning several months finds Clementine with a new group of survivors.

As far as the first episode is concerned, this is the only interaction our protagonist has with characters from Season One.

Despite many similarities in characteristics of the new group members to the old group, it was very difficult for me to trust them. The credit for this goes to the writers as it almost felt like I was trained over five episodes to rigorously question every aspect of the world.

It felt natural and not many stories found in video games can boast the same.

In this season, the player takes control of 11-year-old Clementine who must learn to fend for herself.

It would also be foolish for Telltale Games to immediately tie in the latest episodes with Season One. The choices in the latter episodes were too emotionally trying and to ask that of the player right away in Season Two would be too much. It would also leave little to shock us in the latter episodes of Season Two.

Instead, players are asked to make a new variety of choices that require a more confident protagonist.

Clementine, as she grows older and must survive in this increasingly hopeless world, becomes a confident character herself.

If there is just one complaint about this however, it would be that her new group, consisting primarily of middle-aged people, are too reliant on her to make decisions in Episode Two. It’s as if they have completely forgotten that she’s only 11 years old.

There is a lot of character development to be found in the lighter conversations, and there are some subtle hints dropped as to what will be revealed in future games. Those who played Season One will catch onto this much quicker, though what is to come is still unknown.

The player now has to be very careful with who they can trust. Being sympathetic is no longer an option.

As expected, the intensity is ratcheted up immensely by Episode Two and while the conversations do help significantly, the latest episode wasn’t short on shocking moments.

I obviously won’t be spoiling them here, but I guarantee the player will not have a single moment’s solace during Episode Two.

The music is still as phenomenal as Season One and so are the voice actors. Telltale Games shows a lot of trust in their players to find the emotion in the dialogue themselves, for the most part.

One of the new characters, Luke, looks absolutely devastated when you choose a decision not to his liking. Janel Drewis’ rendition of “In the Pines” playing over the credits for Episode Two was terrific and the strong music selection is something that I have come to expect from all games released by Telltale.

Not much as changed visually but you can certainly tell how Clem feels at times.

There isn’t much to say about the controls here – it’s a point-and-click adventure game with less time to make decisions than episode 1. The game is story driven and players won’t find much in terms of innovation in terms of controls.

That being said, the game does run smoothly and the quick-time events enhance the game significantly.

The art-style is also still similar to Season One with some changes to character design to show growth, specifically with Clementine. The cel-shaded style still matches up really well with the comic-books and every new character added this season has traits unique to them.

The Walking Dead Season Two hasn’t even reached its halfway point yet, but I am happy with the direction of the story.

If Season One was about the characters, Season Two looks like it is focusing on the world these characters have to live in. Even the most skeptical of Walking Dead fans, disenchanted with the TV show like I was, will find several things to love about this game.

Dare I say, it’s telling a better story than the source material.

The first two episodes of The Walking Dead Season Two are now available on PC, PSN and the Xbox Live Arcade.